Hampton elementary student wanders off campus, reported missing

Hampton Police tell NewsChannel 3 a John B. Cary Elementary School student was reported missing after wandering away from the school Tuesday afternoon. However, thanks to a good Samaritan, the boy was found safe about a half mile from the school.

“I would hope the school would take notice and not let it happen again because the next one might not be so lucky,” said Tamara Kelsey, the Hampton woman who saw the kindergartener walking near her Phelps Circle home. “If somebody else would have gotten hold of him when he walked away from school property, who knows what would have happened.”

According to police, the woman called dispatch at 2:48 p.m. Tuesday. Kelsey said the boy seemed lost, and she did not recognize him from the neighborhood.

“You going home?” Kelsey said she asked the boy. “And he says ‘it’s this way’. He says ‘you wanna see where my house is? And I said sure can I walk with you? And I said okay.”

As Kelsey and the boy walked, she said he told her about his first day in kindergarten.

“He did say his teacher said it was time to go home so he got up and went outside and left,” she said. “He just walked away and no one evidently stopped him.”

As they approached Pembroke Avenue, Kelsey realized the boy was lost. She called Hampton Police, who met up her and the boy before taking him back to school where his parents picked him up.

When NewsChannel 3 contacted Hampton Public Schools about this, their spokesperson said they were not aware of the incident. However, Hampton Police say their officers notified the school and the parents about what happened.